


although we are faithless

by cirrus (themorninglark)



Series: SASO 2017 [38]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Challenge: Sports Anime Shipping Olympics | SASO 2017, College Kita, M/M, Third year Atsumu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-12-11 19:32:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11721057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themorninglark/pseuds/cirrus
Summary: “Youpaparazzi,” Atsumu accuses, a stubborn tilt to his chin as his lower lip juts out briefly, allowing himself this one unglamorous pout in front of Kita.Kita’s smile is a fleeting thing. It slips through the still-misty air, through Atsumu’s fingers before he can catch hold of it; it has its hiding places, here among the foxes of stone and the long shadows that paint the trail red.Kita at the Inari Shrine with a polaroid camera.





	although we are faithless

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SASO 2017 Bonus Round 5: Clue | [originally posted here](http://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/24808.html?thread=15513576#cmt15513576)
> 
>  _Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth_  
>  _enters our hearts_  
>  \- Carol Ann Duffy, "Prayer"

“I wish it would rain,” says Atsumu.

He bounds up the steps two at a time, knowing he’s leaving Kita behind, knowing full well that he will come crashing up against his limit and get all out of breath long before Kita does. He’ll be halfway up the mountain, leaning against a _torii_ , watching Kita make his steady way through the thousands of gates like a silent parade.

“Why would you wish that?” Kita asks, amusement faintly in his question.

“I don’t know. Because it’s getting hot. Because there are too many tourists around. Because I _like_ rain.”

He throws his arms out as he climbs, raises his gaze skywards and grins to himself. “Have you ever run in the rain like this, Kita-san?”

“Not up a mountain.”

Atsumu hears a click from behind him as Kita speaks, and turns to see him lowering his Polaroid camera.

“You _paparazzi_ ,” Atsumu accuses, a stubborn tilt to his chin as his lower lip juts out briefly, allowing himself this one unglamorous pout in front of Kita.

Kita’s smile is a fleeting thing. It slips through the still-misty air, through Atsumu’s fingers before he can catch hold of it; it has its hiding places, here among the foxes of stone and the long shadows that paint the trail red.

Atsumu doesn’t go in much for rituals, and he likes to think he scoffs at _tradition_ , but as they pass the entrance to the shrine, he lingers anyway. There is a prayer tattooed on his lips, one that he throws all his reckless faith into.

It is spring, and Kita is no longer his captain, and he has inherited a team that will rise and fall by his hand.

 _I’m just a first year student of literature now,_ Kita had said, when Atsumu first called him from behind the gym. He had stolen away and hidden under a tree and left Osamu with the new kids, and he had taken a few deep breaths and there had been one thought in his head: that he needed to hear Kita’s voice, right there and then.

It had cracked in a way that Atsumu was not used to. Kita’s voice would never crack, of course; it was the static down the line, the distance between them.

_I can’t help you. But you can do this, Atsumu._

At the sound of Kita’s step next to him, his palms clapping together, Atsumu turns to look. Kita’s head is bent, his eyes briefly closed, and Atsumu makes a frame with his own hands, remembers this picture of quiet conviction.

The sky is clear above them. They have a thousand more gates to pass through.

If it rained, Atsumu thinks, they’d find a little stall selling soft serve in the shade, maybe share _kakigori_ under a shelter with the raindrops pattering overhead. Kita would take a photo of him with ice melting on his tongue and the grey clouds at his back, his silhouette thoughtful. This is how he looks, through Kita’s lens; this is no empty reassurance, and Atsumu can believe again.


End file.
